Stage: Glyndebourne on tour
Internationally acclaimed Sussex opera house re-enforces its committment to bring opera to the people
A new production of The Rape Of Lucretia, directed by actress and director Fiona Shaw, is to premiere on the Glyndebourne Tour 2013. The new Britten production is staged alongside Laurent Pelly’s 2008 vivid reimagining of Engelbert Humperdinck’s Hänsel und Gretel with a gingerbread house set in the sugar-saturated aisles of a supermarket. Annabel Arden’s L’elisir d’amore is also revived for the Tour after its celebrated first outing in 2007.
The three productions make up the 45th Glyndebourne Tour, which will launch at Glyndebourne on Sunday 6 October before visiting Woking, Norwich, Canterbury, Milton Keynes, Plymouth and Stoke-on-Trent.
For the first time in the Tour’s history, Encore Week, a series of events and performances designed to inspire the next generation of opera lovers, will take place at Glyndebourne. The week, which runs between 24 and 30 November, features exclusive tour performances for schools, an entire performance for under 30s with tickets costing just £20 – a first in the history of the opera house – and a newly commissioned studio opera for children aged seven to nine composed by Lynne Plowman.
Since 1968 Glyndebourne Tour has bought opera to millions across the country, and this year more than 62,000 tickets are available. The Rape Of Lucretia is Glyndebourne’s first new production of Britten’s masterpiece since its world premiere at Glyndebourne in 1946. Fiona Shaw brings her classically trained expertise to the opera and hopes to ignite the interests of the next generation of Britten and opera enthusiasts. She said: “Staging one of Britten’s most impressive yet rarely performed works is an honour. The opera will provide the perfect opportunity to show people how compelling opera can be.”
Providing a showcase for talented, emerging artists is a central focus of Glyndebourne Tour. The Rape Of Lucretia will feature Nicholas Collon, one of Britain’s most exciting young conductors; Duncan Rock, a former Jerwood Young Artist who made his Glyndebourne debut in 2010 and went on to win the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Chilcott Award in 2012, and British soprano Ellie Laugharne, who has been supported by Glyndebourne’s Jerwood Young Artists programme.
Conducting Hänsel und Gretel is 20-year-old Venezuelan Ilyich Rivas, who made his Tour and Glyndebourne debut in 2012 conducting a number of performances of Mozart’s beloved comedy Le nozze di Figaro. Ilyich returns to the Tour this year having worked with Glyndebourne’s Music Director Vladimir Jurowski, who has provided guidance and support to the young conductor at both Glyndebourne and in his leadership capacity at the London Philharmonic Orchestra.
L’elisir d’amore features rising American tenor Christopher Tiesi, who makes his UK and Glyndebourne debut. US soprano Joélle Harvey joins Christopher as she makes her role debut as Adina, returning to Glyndebourne after her much admired Tour debut last year as Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro.
Autumn cinema screenings return for a second year to form a crucial part of the 2013 Tour repertoire. Glyndebourne’s seminal production of Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde, which due to the scale of the production is too large to be taken on the road, will be shown in cinemas across the country to mark Wagner’s bicentenary year.
Also on Tour is Captain Blood’s Revenge, a new studio opera for children aged seven to nine composed by Lynne Plowman, which combines adventure, mystery and spookiness in a tale of buccaneering high jinks. Performances exclusively for Years 5 to 13 of L’elisir d’amore and Hänsel und Gretel will also be staged throughout Tour. Together this will enable around 9,500 school children to experience the exhilaration of watching this multifaceted art form – many for the first time.
Encore Week will feature a performance of The Rape Of Lucretia exclusively for Glyndebourne’s under 30s audience, with all 1,200 seats offered at just £20 each (28 November). As an additional free event, Luke Styles, Glyndebourne’s young composer in residence, will conduct a free pre-performance concert featuring Ensemble Amorpha, a London based chamber music ensemble dedicated to bringing contemporary music from around the world to the UK.
Arts Council England provides the bedrock of funding that makes Glyndebourne’s innovative Tour and education work possible and for the third year the Daily Mail is also providing valuable sponsorship for the Tour.
To book your tickets and learn more about which venues are offering schools performances, family performances, workshops and lectures please visit: www.glyndebourne.com/season/glyndebourne-tour-2013
